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Spencer                 Hamann

AntiqueTypewriters

The exquisite complication, mechanical theater, and stylistic beauty of antique typewriters has long held my fascination.  I remember being given an old typewriter from a thrift store when I was very young, and being able to take it apart and see what it was made of.  Experiences like this made a major impression on me, and would color my interests and curiosity for years to come.

I fell in love with the typewriters the Underwood company produced during the early 20th century.  Their ubiquitous No. 5 typewriter was so successful that it would come to set a standard for the industry, and become the shape and style that most people assosiate with when they think of the word "typewriter", even now when machines like this are all but seemingly obsolete in the word of touch screens and personal computers.

I purchased my first Underwood No. 5 from a flea market for $10 when I was a high school sophomore.  I mechanically restored this machine, and enjoyed using it for letter writing.  I added another pristine No. 5 and a nice No. 3 to the fleet in my freshman year of college, and kept the No. 3 on my college desk.  I even wrote a midterm on it one semester when my laptop hard drive failed. 

Since then, I've picked up and sold a number of manual typewriters, including a wide platten Underwood No. 6, a very rare red Underwood Noiseless portable (the "noiseless" mechanism was developed to cut down on the din a normal manual typewriter produces, which could be a real head splitter in the early "typewriter pools" where rooms full of typists on machines would bang out documents all day long.  It is acutally pretty effective, and quite quiet!), and a redone Remmington No .12 which I mechanically restored and artistically re-painted for a client.

I'd love to some day find a nice affordable Hammond Multiplex or Blickensderfer, give me a shout if you've got one or another typewriter with an interesting mechanism.    

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